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Bill Gates to Step Down from Microsoft
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Jun 15, 2006 04:00 PM
from the i'm-sure-you-have-more-to-say-than-i dept.
from the i'm-sure-you-have-more-to-say-than-i dept.
Geoffreyerffoeg writes "According to Microsoft PressPass, Bill Gates will be leaving his role at Microsoft in July 2008. He'll be staying with the company, but is also moving to a more fulltime position with the Gates Foundation. 'Microsoft Corp. today announced that effective July 2008 Bill Gates, chairman, will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The company announced a two-year transition process to ensure that there is a smooth and orderly transfer of Gates' daily responsibilities, and said that after July 2008 Gates would continue to serve as the company's chairman and an adviser on key development projects.' CTO Ray Ozzie will assume Gates' role of Chief Software Architect, and CTO Craig Mundie will also take on more leadership responsibility."
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Why Ballmer Should Leave Microsoft 341 comments
An anonymous reader writes "In the wake of the announcement of Bill Gates' departure from the top spot at Microsoft, CNN Money is carrying an article arguing that Steve Ballmer should step down as well." From the article: "Since Gates stepped down as CEO in 2000 in favor of Ballmer, the company has floundered technically and strategically. As the company's chairman, chief software architect and supposed visionary, Gates deserves blame for missing the wave of Web-based software that has propelled Google and Yahoo. But Ballmer has made gaffes of his own in his longtime role as head of the company's business side. They include an undistinguished push into business applications to compete with Oracle, financial maneuvers that have failed to stir the stock - which has slumped 16 percent so far this year - and continuing antitrust problems in the United States and Europe."
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Holy Sh*t (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Holy Sh*t (Score:5, Insightful)
This will be my final post with slashdot, i'll be moving to digg for my news after today.
This guy wants to quit his day to day responsibilities to give away his money to the less fortunate and all you guys want to do is bash him. Hey, I like Linux, I own a Mac and have tons of Windows experience, but just because you don't like his business practices or his OS dosn't give you the right to belittle him. Will you manage to give away 80% of your fortune before you die? Didn't think so fucktard!
Give the guy a break, he's one of the few modern day humanitarians!
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Re:Holy Sh*t (Score:5, Insightful)
You must be new here, etc. etc.
Thing is, the Slashdot-crowd is becoming increasingly singleminded when it comes to issues such as Copyright Infringment, Micro$oft (never forget the dollar sign, or you'll never blend in!) and the Bush Administration. I blame the moderation system. Pimping Linux and Booing Bill, if done with some degree of artfulness, is a surefire way to get modded up. Why take the contrarian position if your point of view is going to be modded "Troll" or "Flamebait" in a matter of nanoseconds?
For what it's worth, I agree with you. Microsoft's business practices can be questioned (though they're not much worse than other companies in similar situations), but the humanitarian efforts of Bill Gates should not be underestimated or scoffed at. Sure, he's still filthy rich despite how much he has given, but if he was as evil as many slashdotters would like to have it, why wouldn't he keep it all? Or spend the money to build an evil headquarter in an inactive volcano?
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Re:Holy Sh*t (Score:5, Insightful)
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He's not leaving (Score:5, Informative)
Re:He's not leaving (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Speaking of monopolies... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Speaking of monopolies... (Score:5, Insightful)
He gave to charity long before the trial. Stock does have a real value. So giving away lots of stock = giving away lots of money.
He's already given away over 60% of his net worth which is way more than any regular joe I know.
His foundation is his AND his wifes. Yes she has a lot to do with it but where does the money come from. Hint...NOT FROM HER!
Their foundation (I just learned this today form NPR) is funding 90% of the world effort to get rid of polio. That's one effort of many but if they succeed at just that one it will be huge.
It matters not what you think of MS and how he got his money. He's doing a lot of good things with it. His wife doesn't get all the credit either. His father also had a lot to do with it growing up.
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Chairman... (Score:5, Funny)
He's replacing Ballmer!?!? O.o
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Ballmer's response (Score:5, Funny)
"I'll fucking KILL him!"
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Government's Response (Score:5, Funny)
At which point Dick Cheney said "Go fuck yourself!",
and shot Ballmer in the face.
Ha! Didn't see that plot twist coming did you?
Man, this stuff writes itself.
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Re:Government's Response (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Chairman... (Score:5, Funny)
o -- Joke
o -- You
-|-
/ \
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Re:He's not leaving (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, nothing like some black humor from geeks disconnected from reality!
I picture some zealots crushing his tomb stone and leaving a note with the words
"... and so, at last, Mammon fell, and this final puny sign of his evil rule was shattered!" -- From the Book of Mozilla, 8:12
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Re:He's not leaving (Score:4, Interesting)
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
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Re:He's not leaving (Score:4, Interesting)
Anticipation of that is why he is going into the "philanthropy biz."
It's SOP for those who know their tombstones deserve crushing. Some of them even go so far as to hide their tombs (See Alexander, Temujin, most of the Pharoahs, etc.).
KFG
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Re:He's not leaving (Score:5, Funny)
This man has performed an illegal operation and has been shut down
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You happy Slashdot??! (Score:5, Funny)
Meet the new Boss (Score:5, Funny)
Thank you (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Thank you (Score:5, Funny)
Signed, Steve Jobs
-- PS: I'll fucking kill you.
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Re:Thank you (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Thank you (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Thank you (Score:5, Insightful)
Frankly, I think the PC became popular in spite of Bill Gates, not because of him.
We should really thank IBM, for creating a PC design that (unlike Apple's) could be "commoditized", and then Compaq, for creating the clone industry. That's what really led to the popularity of the PC, not the mediocre software that ran on it.
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he must not be evil, after all (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:he must not be evil, after all (Score:5, Insightful)
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Cleaning up his act? (Score:5, Funny)
Captain to leave the ship? (Score:5, Funny)
Resume (Score:5, Funny)
On a more serious note, there are a lot of people with large emotional investments pent up in disliking Mr. Gates. The transition is going to be tough. It's almost like Inigo Montoya at the end of The Princess Bride. Maybe they should turn to piracy?
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Spelling, probably
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Oh, no! (Score:5, Funny)
who knew (Score:5, Funny)
Who would have guessed that Bill Gates was also Spider-man?
Well, that's plenty of notice.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Thanks Bill (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Thanks Bill (Score:5, Informative)
"You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature." (Source [venganza.org])
Correlation does not imply causation. Denigrating his generosity on account of when he was generous is just plain rude.
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Doubtful (Score:4, Funny)
just wait until he notices his company following antitrust law, behaving ethically, paying to license code they use.
he'll swoop right in and put a stop to that real fast
He has a LOONG way to go to catch up with EARL (Score:4, Funny)
From robber baron to philanthropist (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:From robber baron to philanthropist (Score:4, Insightful)
So what? He's doing good, isn't he? Why do you care about the motives? Do you hate Bill Gates more than the good he is doing (this is not a rhetorical question)?
Regarding what he did to other companies, he outcompeted them. I was at Novell and saw the errors at Novell cause it to fail, not helped at all by uSoft, so I have every reason to be bitter, but I'm not.
Bill Gates (or rather uSoft) was caught violating the rules on a number of occasions, and they were punished, but it's not as if uSoft was an Enron or manipulated the US govt. as some large utilities and the ILECs do. I suspect breaking weak govt. rules is standard fare at the titan level too, and I don't think you can deprecate uSoft or Bill Gates for taking no prisoners. That's what business is all about: structured warfare, and the goal is to win. He won.
By the way, I'm certainly no uSoft fan, and I have zero insight into what Bill Gates is as a person, but I can admire his achievements without being either incredibly jealous or bitter.
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Ambition... (Score:5, Insightful)
Bill Gates has achieved what most people only dream of in terms of their life's ambitions. What do most people want? Money? Sure, but that is not the end of everything. Most (normal) people actually want to make a contribution to society/the world; to leave a legacy, if you will. (Granted, Bill has already done that.)
So when you have succeeded beyond your wildest ambitions, then what? Gates cannot actually spend his money on himself fast enough. There comes a point when you start to want to spend it on your legacy instead. Hence, the charity funding. But this is still ambition.
(Of course, I wish more people would reach that stage.)
The End of an Era? (Score:4, Insightful)
Bill was rare in that he had vision and the ability to do technical things, and was a very driven person. He was the guy we all loved, then when he got rich he was the guy we all loved to 'hate'. But I remember what it was like before him, and he really did help change the world.
At this point the only person left from the original shakers and movers is Steve Jobs. Steve isn't much of a technical person, but he has been a visionary in the past equal to Bill. I have to wonder how much longer till he bows out?
And to be completely honest, it makes me wonder what the next bunch of 'snotty nosed kids' (as my compsci prof used to call Gates, Jobs, and Woz) will come up with. Every time an Era ends, a new one starts after all...
Gates = modern day Robin Hood (Score:5, Interesting)
The companies that Gates "crushed" were rich companies whose execs had become rich themselves.
So Gates took from those rich fat cats (through unethical means, according to the Gates haters), and is now giving to the poor. That makes him a high-tech Robin Hood. And just like the government tried to bring down Robin Hood, they tried to bring down Gates. What say you to that?
The beauty of capitalism (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Uhhhh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Gates - creates world's most successful company, becomes world's richest man, leaves day job to spend billions on charity.
Us - Made lame borg jokes for 5 years, finally released a browser that's better than IE if you ignore all the unfixed copy/paste bugs. Convinced a few people that Unix sucked less than Windows.
Dude, I think *he* won.
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Re:Uhhhh... (Score:4, Interesting)
You left out 'shapes computing the world over' (on the desktop).
Gates kicks ass. He'd be the perfect role model if it weren't for some of his less savoury feats.
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Re:Uhhhh... (Score:5, Insightful)
And congratulations to Bill for having the sense to move on with his life. Microsoft may not be the most ethical of companies, but they are no Enron. Bill Gates is no Kenneth Lay. If you want some other perspective, compare Gates with Jobs [wired.com]. I don't know what Larry Ellison is doing these days, but in the past, his main "philanthropic" ambition was to donate to an anti-aging research foundation.
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Re:Oh shit (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Politics (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, crap [wikipedia.org].
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Cant forgive Ozzie for Lotus Notes. (Score:4, Funny)
That said, I think it is time to sell off the rest of my shares, since the man who gave the world Lotus Notes is now the Chief Software Architect at Microsoft. Sorry Ray, you are a good guy, but I cant forgive you for Notes, my man.
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Re:Whether You Hate or Love Him... (Score:5, Informative)
I wouldn't say that. He more or less make computers standard or in a sense... Got everything to run on the same operating system.
If you want to talk about making computers affordable... Then you'll have to give the credit to the Intel, AMD, and Cyrix price wars of 1995-2000.
(Although if you think about the saying "What intel giveth, microsoft taketh away." then maybe they caused a bit of motivation in that price and speed war)
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